One thing I’ve learned from several years of skiing at Breckenwolf every Wednesday night with a bunch of middle aged dudes who may or may not be taking nips of whiskey between runs, is that it’s really hard to wrestle with skis on.

Eventually, if you ski consistently enough, you come to a Zen-like sense of understanding that there really aren’t any bad days on the hill. Because you’re skiing in the South. And that alone is a kind of miracle.

Have you checked out the results of this year's Best of the Blue Ridge? Snowshoe Mountain Resort won "Best Ski Resort" in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, so we sent a team of winterites with our travel editor, Jess, to find out why.

In 2012, Eric Thompson suffered from a spinal cord injury that has since left him bound to the confines of a wheelchair. Yet that hasn't stopped this former ski patroller and raft guide from staying active in the outdoors.